Mr. Future

Budget-battered NASA Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers, Spirit, “into hibernation mode” for the coming Martian winter, and limit the activities of the other robot, Opportunity, to fulfill an order to cut $4 million from the program’s budget, mission team members said Monday.

The news comes amid belt-tightening at NASA headquarters, which is under pressure to juggle Mars exploration and projects to study the rest of the solar system. Both rovers were originally planned for three-month missions, but due to a number of factors including their amazingly successful designs, the robots are now in their fourth year of continuous exploration. It costs NASA about $20 million annually to keep the rovers running.

Link (via Yahoo/AP)

Update:  Spirit spared?   NASA issues conflicting signals as to the rover’s fate.

“…shortly after CNN.com published the story, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said the agency will not shut down one of the two Mars rovers, according to spokesman Bob Jacobs.

“There is a process that has to be followed for any mission to be canceled and the cancellation of the Mars Exploration Rovers is not under consideration,” Jacobs said. “There is an ongoing budget review within the agency’s Mars exploration program. However, shutting down of one of the rovers is not an option.

NASA headquarters spokesman Dwayne Brown confirmed the budget directive had been issued. The cut’s purpose is to offset cost overruns with the Mars Science Laboratory, a rover set to launch next year, he said.”

Link

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A timeless story of a boy and his robot, it watches like a Godzilla movie crossed with the 60’s television version of Batman. Great campy fun. A man in a giant robot costume slugs it out with rubbery monsters while stomping all over a scale model of Tokyo. A 12 year old boy joins a secret organization of world defending spies, foiling alien overlord plots and villainous beatnik henchmen. What is not to love?

In this week’s episode, “Gargoyle Vine, A Space Plant” Giant Robot and the agents of unicorn face a giant alien Kudzu vine, that devours everything it touches. Biolante has nothing on this.

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A lot of net attention has been rightly paid to Boston Dynamics‘ / DARPA’s “Big Dog” robotic pack mule this week. It’s uncanny all-terrain gate makes for amazing video footage for robot-fans. When combined with the strangely sympathetic shots of an employee kicking the beast to show that it’s very hard knock it off balance, it’s an irresistible watch, and re-watch.

But there’s something a little ominous and sad about the video. Watching it, you just know that there’s a military department that has already drawn up plans to strap a weapon to the back of the camo-clad robot. Like the Soviet anti-tank dogs, it was born drafted, destined to be kicked as a show of resilience, until it’s sent into the field. It’s amazing, but for some reason, it’s hard to feel particularly good about it.

The best antidote for the sad wisdom of a robot on the road to weaponization is a robot designed to make a dog happy. Jerry the wiener dog has his own fetch-bot, and he demonstrably loves playing with it.

“..after two years of on and off work, with many safety features such as IR proximity sensors to protect Jerry and my son from the machine, I finally complete[ted it].

Far from being a replacement for me, I was always right there with him enjoying his fun. And with all the troubles that I went through to build the ball machine, I still end up throwing more balls than that the machine could count”

Though it’s comparatively a simpler robot, there’s something perfect and right about it. The next time the DOD wants to show off its newest kill-bot, I’m going to re-watch Jerry here, just to remind myself about why robots are great.

Link (via BotJunkie)

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A timeless story of a boy and his robot, it watches like a Godzilla movie crossed with the 60’s television version of Batman. Great campy fun. A man in a giant robot costume slugs it out with rubbery monsters while stomping all over a scale model of Tokyo. A 12 year old boy joins a secret organization of world defending spies, foiling alien overlord plots and villainous beatnik henchmen. What is not to love?

In this week’s episode, Giant Robot takes on one of the goofiest looking alien robots in sci-fi history, Nucleon, the “Magic Globe”. Enjoy.

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Osaka Museum of Creative Industries was host to a number of culinary robot wonders, but best among them had to be Toyo Riki’s Takoyaki-bot.  A rare treat in the states, Takoyaki is an intimidating but delicious junkfood of choice for Tokyo street food carts.

The robot chef prepared each octopus-ball fritter individually from scratch, mixing, pouring, turning, adding more batter at just the right moment. Finally it arranged the takoyaki on a plate, basting each one with sauce, and shaking on a bit of seaweed and fish flakes for good measure.

RobotWatch has a film of the robot in action here.

Link (via LiveScience)

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For the next few weeks, I’ll be posting episodes Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot; quite possibly the greatest television show ever made in the history of the entire world.

A timeless story of a boy and his robot, it watches like a Godzilla movie crossed with the 60’s television version of Batman. Great campy fun. A man in a giant robot costume slugs it out with rubbery monsters while stomping all over a scale model of Tokyo. A 12 year old boy joins a secret organization of world defending spies, foiling alien overlord plots and villainous beatnik henchmen. What is not to love?

Growing up, this brilliantly/poorly dubbed 60s Japanese TV masterpiece was the absolute high point of my after-school formative years. Did I mention the giant robot? There’s a giant robot.

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Well, I’ve never been to Spain, but I kinda like the robots.

Developed in Barcelona by Pal Technology Robotics, the person-sized REEM-B lasts longer, and can carry more weight than any other humanoid robot in its class.

While it has an impressive compliment of software features, from face tracking to real-time environment mapping and navigation, REEM-B’s ability to lift and carry up to 25% of its body weight sets it apart from the tea-tray-carrying Asimos of the world.

It’s also boasts a 2 hour on-board battery life, a first for a humanoid robot this size.

Link (via Gizmodo)

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Mr. Future’s secret identity revealed!

As part of my ( beloved ) day job, I invent electronic toys for Atomocom.  We just had a bang-up great Toy Fair ‘08 showing, and to make a good week even better, New York Magazine just ran a small Toy Fair aftermath/artifact blurb on yours truly. 

( Now back to our regularly scheduled future-centric programming. )

Link

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Tired of drug dealers, petty thieves and vandals loitering near his neighborhood drinking establishment, Rufus Terrill built himself some robotic muscle.

‘ He mounted an old meat smoker atop a three-wheel scooter and attached a spotlight, an infrared camera, water cannon and a loudspeaker. He covered the contraption with impact-resistant rubber and painted the whole thing jet black.

“I tell them they are trespassing, it’s private property, and they have to leave,” he said. “They throw bottles and cans at it. That’s when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches.” ‘

Link via Robots.net

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Okay, it’s not exactly a robot, but I really like the idea of a portable electronic means of salvation. Besides having an iPhone.

The Rosario Elettronico faithfully recites the appropriate mysteries of the rosary for each day of the week, (please, please, please let it be in a robotic voice) and comes in a headphone-only or loudspeaker version.

For robots of other faiths, there is of course the mantra-matic Shilpa Chanting Device and Tibetan Digital Buddhist ‘Jukebox’.

Link to the translated order page (via BoingBoing Gadgets)

Note: The Electronic Rosary is also customizable with an optional Padre Pio action sticker!

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